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News & Trends

This department of Rental Housing Journal is dedicating to keeping apartment owners, multifamily executives, real estate investors, landlords and other real estate professionals up to date with the latest trends in real estate, property management and more. Here you will find trends in rents, real estate sales, apartment development, the economy at large and property management and investing industry matters.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) kicked off Fair Housing Month 2017 at its national headquarters. This year’s theme is Fair Housing Equals Opportunity, highlighting equality in housing as a foundation upon which aspirations can be achieved and affirming the Fair Housing Act’s ongoing role in confronting housing discrimination, according to the release.

A bill that lifts the ban on statewide rent control and leaves the rent control issue up to cities has passed the Oregon House 31-27 and now heads to the Senate, according to reports.

The bill, HB 2004, that passed also prohibits no-cause evictions. Two Democrats joined every Republican in voting against the measure. It now heads to the Oregon Senate.

The measure would allow cities and counties to enact local ordinances that would control how much landlords could raise rents each year, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Currently, there’s a statewide ban on such ordinances.

A company specializing in value-added multifamily investments has purchased a 406-unit infill apartment community in Orange County, California, according to a release.

The Villas at Tustin Apartments were acquired by The Bascom Group, LLC and are located in the heart of Orange County. The $94 million sale, or $231,527 per unit, closed on March 28, 2017.

Villas at Tustin was constructed in 1972 and is located at 2414 N. Tustin Avenue, Santa Ana, California.

"Villas at Tustin is one of the best investment opportunities we have seen in Orange County. Villas is in a great location with easy access to the 55, 22, 91, and 5 freeways, Chad Sanderson, Senior Principal for Bascom said in the release.

RealPage and Axiometrics report that apartment occupancy is dropping as more than 164,000 apartment units were finished in the past six months, a time of traditionally slow leasing in the industry, but overall rents continue to grow.

“Occupancy remains solid relative to the long-term norm, but there are lots of available units at just-completed projects,” Jay Denton, vice president of RealPage’s Axiometrics business group, said in a release. “Also, top-tier existing projects are losing performance momentum for the first time in this market cycle. Some renters from established luxury projects are opting for the newest deliveries in order to take advantage of rent discounts often offered during the initial lease-up process.”

The West Coast has many of the most robust apartment markets in the nation, but the two most influential metros, Los Angeles and San Francisco, have been in a bit of a slump lately, according to a new report from Axiometrics.

Evan Downey of Axiometrics reports that while the West Coast markets fueled the historic performance of the national apartment market in 2014 and 2015. Many of those markets however are smaller, secondary markets.

Among the current western powerhouses, only Seattle and Anaheim could be considered primary markets. Los Angeles proper and the San Francisco Bay Area have fallen back.

The story of the Bay Area has often been told from double-digit rent growth in 2015 to negative rent growth in late 2016.

City of Portland housing officials admit they exaggerated the number of apartments with code violations needing repairs saying now the number is only 19 and not the 400 as originally reported, according to an investigation by Oregonlive.com.

Housing officials did the estimate of 400 needing repair, in order to get a $500,000 grant.

What appeared to be a bargain - paying landlords for repairs if they agreed to keep rents low - got caught up in the situation of bogus numbers.

According to the newspaper, the Portland Housing Bureau wanted city money to clean up code violations at low-income apartments east of 82nd Avenue. They claimed 400 properties in east Portland had been flagged for urgent repairs, when the actual number at the time was 19, according to an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Hot new homes sales markets like Portland, Seattle and Dallas are showing increased home builder confidential as new home sales have increased roughly 14% year over year, according to new research from John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Rick Palacios Jr., director of research for John Burns, writes in an email newsletter this week that “Three months into 2017, it is clear to us that home builders have started the year off on a much better foot than 2016. Based on our monthly survey of over 300 home builders across the country, new home sales have increased roughly 14% YOY through February. March is looking just as strong, based on our channel check survey of 82 builders last week. “

A new report has identified and ranked the 10 best counties for renting single-family homes to millennials.

ATTOM Date Solutions first-quarter 2017 Single Family Rental Market report, which ranks the best U.S. markets for buying single family rental properties in 2017, shows the best millennial single-family markets are in Detroit, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Duluth, Minnesta.

In all 10 counties, the millennial share of the population increased at least 5 percent between 2014 and 2015 — the most recent data available from the Census Bureau — and millennials accounted for at least 20 percent of the total population in 2015.

Anyone who has looked for a home in the Portland metro area recently knows the reality: It’s a busy, fascinating, crazy market. A list price is often just a starting point. Writing letters to sellers hoping they choose you to buy their home has become popular – and sometimes even necessary. Bidding wars are common, and homes in some neighborhood areas receive multiple offers the first weekend they are on the market, sometimes in all-cash deals.